Iowa Lakes falls to Div. 1 powerhouse Southeastern

November 19, 2012

BURLINGTON?- The Iowa Lakes Community College Men's basketball team dropped a tightly contested game to Southeastern Community College in Burlington Sunday night 67-64

Iowa Lakes got off to a slow start falling behind 18-2 in the games first 5 minutes. The Lakers regrouped trimming the lead to seven with 2 minutes left in the first half before a 6-0 run by Southeastern resulted in a 13-point halftime deficit for the Lakers.

"For whatever reason we weren't ready to start the game," said Iowa Lakes coach Troy Larson. "It is a tough place to play with their three national championship banners hanging and big crowd but we expected a much better start. We were getting beat to loose balls, not defending their ball screens, and were standing around on offense."

Iowa Lakes started the second half on a 12-0 run to pull within one. A back and forth game took place from there with the Lakers taking their one and only lead of the game on a layup by freshman guard Ben Shellim at the 12-minute mark. Down seven with under a minute to play the Lakers Kelly Madison sunk a deep three pointer to cut the lead to four. After a Laker stop, Shellim hit a long two pulling Iowa Lakes within two. Forced to foul Southeastern made 1 of 2 free throws. Shellim's three at the buzzer was off resulting in the three-point loss.

"I was very proud of our team in the second half," said Larson. "We competed the entire half and gave ourselves a chance to win the game. I believe if we clean some things up we can be a good basketball team by the end of the year."

The Lakers placed three players in double figures lead by Madison with 20. Josh Schaben added 12 and Shellim had 10.

The Lakers continue their road trip today with their first league game at Clinton. Game time is 7:30 p.m. Next home game for the Lakers is Tuesday, Nov. 27 against NJCAA Division 1 Iowa Western.